William Wallace Allen, Jr., a prominent young lawyer of San Francisco, has the talent and ability and the devotion to the jealous mistress of the law which are the principal factors of success in the legal profession, and he has already gained recognition from the people and a repidly extending patronage throughout the city.

Mr. Allen was born in Stanwood, Iowa, in 1871, being a son of William Wallace and Ellen M. (Armstrong) Allen, the former a native of Indiana and the latter of Illinois, and both of old American families dating back to the Revolutionary epoch. His father, who had also espoused the profession of law, brought his family out to California in 1875, and established his home and practice in Los Angeles, where he still continues as one of the leading lawyers of the city.

Mr. Allen, Jr., was educated in the public schools of Alameda county, California, graduating from the Oakland high school in 1890. From 1891 to 1894 he was in the general freight department of the Southern Pacific Railroad, but resigned in order to take up the study of law, which he had decided upon as his life work. He was admitted to practice before the supreme court in 1895, and has maintained his office in San Francisco up to the present time. He has always taken an active part in Republican politics, and in 1902 was elected to the general assembly for the session of 1903-04, during which he was appointed by the speaker chairman of the corporations committee.

In 1896 Mr. Allen married Miss Henrietta Chaquette, a native of California and a daughter of E. C. Chaquette, who was born in Quebec and came to California in the early sixties. One child has been born of this marriage, Alberta. Mr. Allen has fraternal affiliations with the Masonic order, the Woodmen of the World and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

Source: History of the New California Its Resources and People, Volume II